Without Conscience
by Straying Life
Summary: BIG AU. Ghosts. Horrifying creatures from the depth of one’s mind. Only few delve into this field of paranormality. When Daniel Fenton arrives in the ruined Amity Park, capital of ghosts, though, these creatures…are suddenly something totally different…


Heh…this is what happens when you mix a School of Rock video-in-progress, me packing like never before for the move in about two weeks, Naruto research on YouTube, a strange desire to do some Danny-comics, and a shiny new community I've created on LiveJournal. A really weird…really strange…AU. By the way, this is probably going to be one of my shorter stories. Big, long, chapters and less updates. YAY!

SUMMARY: BIG AU. Ghosts. Horrifying creatures from the depth of one's mind. Only few delve into this field of paranormality. When Daniel Fenton arrives in the ruined Amity Park, capital of ghosts, though, these creatures…are suddenly something totally different…

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Danny Phantom or any affiliated characters. They belong to Butch Hartman. I do, however, own this alternate world of the DP canon-verse.

RATED: T for dark underlying themes, slight violence, and mild language.

Chapter 1

"The Shadow of a Shadow"

Amity Park. Jeremiah and Marilyn Fenton had built a ghost portal twenty years ago. They were the only ones who spent their days in labs researching ectoplasmic residue instead of taking the bus to a small cubicle in the business district. People believed them when they claimed ghosts were real, all right. No one doubted that much. What they were unsure about were why they had chosen to study _ghosts_.

Ghosts were…horrifying creatures. When a human died, their heart was gone. Only a dormant part of the brain, now woken up, remained. And everything else had withered away, along with their life. Without a heart, without the human part of the brain, there was no such thing as a conscience. Ghosts, although without a heart, had a burning desire, each one longing for something else, that could be brought to the point of obsession. And without a conscience, they would do anything to get that one thing. Including slowly, painfully kill the people closest to them.

Almost every citizen of Amity Park had come to the Fenton's home the day that Jeremiah and Marilyn were planning to unveil their ghost portal—bluntly dubbed the Fenton Ghost Portal. When they plugged it in, everyone in the laboratory—and the staircase, and the living room, and the kitchen, and outside by the windows—gasped in unison, their voices hitched in their throats.

And when only sparks flew out menacingly, sighs followed, their voices slowly returning. Jeremiah and Marilyn stared in disbelief at the portal for ten minutes before the event had clicked in their minds. Silently, the pair trudged up the stairs and into bed, ignoring the fact that everyone had long gone.

The pair hadn't left bed for a week. A close family friend, Ida Manson, sighed and decided that the two were going to waste away if she didn't come over and help out. She force-fed them everyday, forced them into baths—although Jeremiah went in with swimming trunks on—and other things.

Then, after a horrifyingly long pep talk from Ida, the two decided to do something. So three weeks later, Marilyn was pronounced pregnant with a baby girl. Ida admitted, this was not what she meant by "doing something" but it was a notch on the way to recovery.

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Twenty years later, Amity Park was a wasteland. Natives couldn't leave, tourists couldn't enter. It was isolated, an island surrounded by land. From the outside, it was a formerly successful city now in ruins.

Beneath the fallen skyscrapers were small, irregular, makeshift houses of original apartment buildings, condominiums, and homes, now collapsed over remains. Despite its seemingly impoverished state, it thrived on its own. It was a simple stroke of luck that Amity was a county with several different towns. In each town, there were different people. Although it was a huge area, years of entrapment in the same town became dull and people began to wander. Thus, people of Amity Park knew the layout of Amity Farms. People of Amity Village knew the layout of Amity City. And people of Amity Cliffs knew the layout of Amity Park. They were one huge community, each offering something different to the other.

Amity Park had the fewest people, since this was where they had struck first and caused the most damage. But there were enough people to substitute the area thirty years ago, when it was at its peak.

Life was normal. At least, as normal as it could get around Amity Park. When the second Amity Park Conspiracy began, a boy by the name of Daniel Fenton arrived. Many thought he was the long-lost son of Jack and Maddie Fenton, resident ectoplasmic experts, but when the couple stared at the boy in disbelief, the theory disappeared.

He was fourteen. He was in the ninth grade at the rather ironically named Casper High School. Most rumours shifted from things like the outside world and the first Amity Park Conspiracy to this boy alone.

He had killed his own family and came to Amity Park seeking refuge.

He had weapons that could break the ghostly hold over the town.

He was a ruthless disciple of vengeance.

No one knew where he lived. No one knew if he talked outside of class. No one knew his classes, even. He was registered in the school's database, but for all they knew, his file might as well have had nothing in it.

Samantha Manson had heard every word of these rumours and unanswered questions. There was a Daniel Fenton in the school? Her grandmother, Ida Manson, had been close friends with the Fenton family twenty years ago. Of course, she had also heard that Daniel wasn't related to Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. And her grandmother had passed away in the Amity Park Conspiracy. She had no sources.

But she finally caught him in one of her classes. History. Third seat from the left, front row. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who wasn't paying attention to the lesson, because someone had caught her gaping at the boy.

"What are staring at?" asked the boy in a whisper. Then he followed her gaze. "Oh." Sam turned her head in surprise. Was she that obvious? "Relax. You're not the first to do that. Look." The boy motioned to the class. Everyone was stealing glances at him. In fact, Daniel seemed to be the only one who was glancing at the board.

"Do you know anything about him?" Sam whispered back. The boy snorted.

"No. Who does?" Sam frowned.

"Why does no one just go over there and talk to him or something?" she asked. The boy raised an eyebrow.

"You obviously don't understand the high school social system." Sam gave him an expectant look. "Everyone's scared of him because he's _different_. No one knows how to react to someone who doesn't fit a stereotype." Sam turned her head back to the boy.

_Who are you, then?_

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Daniel slowly chewed his lunch. All the school could afford were vegetables from Amity Farms, but Sam was pleased with this decision. Daniel was nonplussed when he saw the selection of foods. It was food. Better than the food from before…he wasn't even sure if that was edible food…

"Hey."

Was someone talking to him? He had to try and find his voice…damn it, why could he talk in class, but not reply to a single word?

Daniel struggled to say something. His mouth fell open and the girl before him—a black-haired, violet-eyed teenager—raised an eyebrow.

"Um…Hi."

That was all he could come up with. It had been years since he had a real conversation that didn't involve death threats.

"So…what's your name?"

"You…you don't know yet?" Daniel grinned weakly. He had heard the rumours. "I'm…D-Danny Fenton." He was doing pretty good so far, actually!

"Danny, huh?" she replied. "No relation to Jack and Maddie Fenton?" Danny raised an eyebrow.

"N-no. At least, none that I know of."

"So…who are your parents?"

Damn. This was the exact topic he wanted to stay away from. Why did Lady Luck hate him so much? Oh yeah. That's right. Her son held a grudge against him. Just because Johnny had seen him in the first month.

"Oh um…"

_Lady Luck must really be laughing right now…with Johnny at her side, too. _

"Well…we were trying to get into Amity Park…and I was the only one who could get past the shield."

_Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it! Why did I set myself up for this?_

"So…why did you get through?" the girl asked.

"Um…no offence or-or anything, but uh…I'd rather not talk about so soon." That should keep her off the topic…implications were always a way out. "So…um…W-who are you?"

Oh, gods, I hope she isn't offended… 

"Oh!" she laughed. She was offended. "I'm Sam Manson. Sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier." She dropped her voice as Danny raised an eyebrow. "So…the rumours are just crap, right?"

Danny turned away. One aspect of every rumour was true. He was seeking refuge in Amity Park. He could break the ghostly hold over the town. He was ruthless. He was everything the town head come to fear and despise. What he was…was _scared of himself_.

Danny grinned weakly again, his head turning to Sam.

"Yes. They're all…wrong." Danny felt a huge black hole in his stomach. He hated lying. He hated it so much…and the one person who ever saw him as even the tiniest bit human was being fed a web of lies.

"Hey. Can I join you?" asked the boy from class earlier. He adjusted his glasses, balancing the tray on one hand. Sam nodded.

"Well, I say so. But I don't know about Danny here. You want…what's your name? I never caught it," said Sam.

"Tucker. Tucker Foley. That's TF, as in Too Fine." Danny stared at the boy. What was he trying to do? But Sam smiled.

"Nice, Total Failure, real nice," she said somewhat dryly. Tucker made a face, as did Danny, but his was bewildered.

"You can make fun of him and he won't scar you with a cattle prod?"

They both gave him looks. Danny cursed himself. He had just blown his cover. The best he could do now was grin weakly. It was the one thing that kept him from becoming the Not-So-Human Intestine before. It must have a good effect.

"Good joke, man!" laughed Tucker. Danny raised his eyebrows. He…had friends? _Friends_. It was…all too out there for him.

A blue mist escaped Danny's mouth. He braced himself for shots and electricity…but none came. Sam only poked him on the shoulder.

"Uh…Danny? What are you doing?" she asked. Danny looked down. Maybe seeking refuge here was a bad idea…? But the shield was what brought him there. Anything to keep them away.

"Nothing Sam, nothing."

"Um…okay."

"Let me say right now," declared Danny to his new-found friends, spewing things he shouldn't be spewing. "What I do will confuse you guys a lot. It's…just adjustment. Okay?" Sam and Tucker understood even though they had never left Amity Park. They did have to adjust to Amity Park Conspiracy's child labour laws when they turned 13 though.

"So…ooh, look at her. On a one to ten scale, what is she?" asked Tucker, lightly elbowing Danny. Sam only smacked her forehead with her palm. Danny grinned.

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A year. Everyone was fifteen now. And adults braced themselves. Bits of it were returning. The missing people…loss of valuable items…and the biggest clue of all…the Fenton inventions were acting up.

Second Amity Park Conspiracy. That's what this was. The children thought their parents were crazy, but the school was periodically getting destroyed. The only thing they could find strange marks and squiggles on paper and the walls.

Sam and Tucker noticed with increasing worry that Danny became grimmer and grimmer with each sign. Especially the notes. They knew that Danny…was not who he was. Danny knew the squiggles! He knew something! They weren't stupid…something big was at work here.

And Danny was at the heart of it.

They would never suspect Danny of being a double agent to start the Second Amity Park Conspiracy. But they had no doubt that Danny…was in the heart of all this.

Which meant that they were, too.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2: later…

Ugh…look, my magical realism knowledge shows next chapter! There is now going to be a past present future set-up…figure it out people. I like this story. The thing is, after Reality Trip…I step back and take a look at the whole scheme of DP here…how it's gotten so much darker, riskier, dangerous, and secretive…and I realize that there's a huge thing at work here. I like writing these dark atmospheric stories…I love the dark feeling in the pit of your stomach when you don't know what it's for!


End file.
